hawaii marijuana

HONOLULU – Actor and marijuana advocate Woody Harrelson was one of nearly 60 applicants to apply to open one of Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensaries.

Harrelson, 54, applied for a license in Honolulu County under his company, Simple Organic Living.

The Hawaii Department of Health posted the list of 66 applications on its website Friday. The state is now reviewing applications for dispensary permits, which they will award in April.

Video game entrepreneur Henk Rogers also applied for a license under his company, Blue Planet Healing, which advocates for energy independence across the state. Rogers, 61, is famous for discovering the video game “Tetris” more than 20 years ago, and lives in Hawaii in an entirely solar-powered home.

Among other applicants include Dirk Fukushima, producer of the local television show, “Hawaii Stars,” and former University of Hawaii Regent Charles Kawakami.

If selected, dispensary applicants must have $1 million cash before applying for a licenses, plus $100,000 for each dispensary location. All applicants must have been Hawaii residents for more than five years.

Under a law passed in 2015, the state will grant eight licenses for marijuana business owners across the islands. The law allows medical marijuana businesses to have two production centers and two retail dispensaries, for a total of 16 dispensaries statewide. Six are allowed on Oahu, four on Hawaii Island, four on Maui and two on Kauai.

Dispensaries are set to open in July.

Hawaii became the first to legalize medical marijuana through the legislative process 16 years ago. Lawmakers have introduced laws to legalize recreational marijuana; however they don’t think they’re likely to pass this year.

It’s been a long time coming, but the tropical state of Hawaii should see medical dispenary signs popping up by this time next year.

The Hawaii State Legislature passed the original medical marijuana law fifteen years ago in the year 2000, enabling the use of the plant by individuals with specific qualifying conditions.

However, the law did not provide patients with a legal method of obtaining marijuana. This forced the state’s medical marijuana patients, who now number about 13,000, to grow their own marijuana or run afoul of state laws. Even the sale of seeds for marijuana cultivation has remained illegal in Hawaii.

Laws codifying growing, distribution and sales of cannabis were approved by the Hawaii legislature this year. At first, the plan was to issue licenses starting in January 2017 with operations beginning in June of that year. Then a state Senate committee passed a amendment that would allow them to open sooner.

The new regulations were signed into law last week by Hawaii’s governor, David Ige.

The state will allow 16 dispensaries in all: six on Oahu, four on Maui, four on the Big Island, and two on Kauai.

There will be only eight total dispensary licenses available (each license allows for two locations and two growing sites), all at the discretion of the Department of Health.

In order to use marijuana as medicine, a patient must be diagnosed by a physician licensed to practice in Hawaii as having one of several specific debilitating medical conditions or some other chronic or debilitating condition that produces wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe and persistent muscle pain.

Some convention attendees are not seeking to establish businesses, but are rather hoping to offer their services.

Brett Roper is from Medicine Man Technologies as a consultant for dispensary operators.

“Our current clients we’re working with here in Hawaii have capital budgets, initial capital budgets, in the $6 to $7 million range, so when you look at the capital budget or investment, you need to initially look at roughly 13,000 patients that are active today,” he said.

As far as profits go, Roper says revenues are expected to run, depending upon their cultivation capabilities, in the $5 million range.

“But it’s most likely that these companies will be a year to 18 months before they see any kind of profit potential to do the start up costs and modeling of the product,” he said.

Doug Banfelder, a commercial insurance specialist at Premier Southwest Insurance Group in Arizona, says Hawaii’s developing system could be compared to Arizona’s relatively new medical marijuana dispensary system.

In Arizona, the opening of the dispensaries was delayed by more than two years, but profits have been worth the wait, he said.

Business was] slow at first, according to Banfelder. “But once Arizona’s program finally came online we wrote 70 percent of the market and used that success to launch to the national level,” he said. “Our wholesaler tells me we submit more new business to him than any of his 1,600 other agencies.”

According to the new law, which awaits the signature of Governor David Ige, there will be 16 dispensaries total; six on Oahu, four on Maui, four on the Big Island, and two on Kauai.

In order to open a dispensary, you must have been a legal resident of Hawaii for the last five years, with at least $1 million in the bank. There will be only eight total dispensary licenses available (each license allows for two locations and two growing sites), all at the discretion of the Department of Health.

In 2000, the Hawaii State Legislature passed the original medical marijuana law, enabling the use of the plant by individuals with specific qualifying conditions.

However, the law did not provide patients with a legal method of obtaining marijuana. This forced the state’s medical marijuana patients, who now number about 13,000, to grow their own marijuana or run afoul of state laws. Even the sale of seeds for marijuana cultivation has remained illegal in Hawaii.

In order to use marijuana as medicine, a patient must be diagnosed by a physician licensed to practice in Hawaii as having one of several specific debilitating medical conditions or some other chronic or debilitating condition that produces wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe and persistent muscle pain.

The Hawaii Legislature has approved a plan to create a system of medical marijuana dispensaries 15 years after the drug was legalized in the state.

The House and Senate passed the bill Thursday sending it to Gov. David Ige.

The development could provide relief to the state’s 13,000 patients who have been left to grow their own marijuana or buy it on the black market.

“This is a victory for children who can’t be taken care of any other way,” said Teri Heede, 60, who has multiple sclerosis and has been growing her own marijuana in Honolulu.

Jari Sugano is the mother of one of those children. Her 6-year-old daughter has Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that can be treated with medical marijuana.

Sugano struggled to find the right strain of marijuana to grow for her daughter, and then to grow the plant, finally converting it into oil.

“It’s a huge process to undertake,” Sugano said. “I think all of this is going to benefit a lot of families.”

Ige hasn’t promised to sign the bill, but he has said his staff worked closely with lawmakers to craft the final draft of the legislation.

Under the proposal, dispensaries could begin operating as soon as July 2016. The bill allows dispensaries to open on all the major Hawaiian islands, including three on Oahu, two each on Maui and Hawaii’s Big Island and one on Kauai.

Applications for dispensary licenses would become available in January.

Each dispensary license would cover up to two retail dispensing locations and two production centers, with each production center cultivating no more than 3,000 plants.

Hawaii’s Legislature was the first to approve medical pot in 2000, but a few other states had OK’d it through voter initiatives.

“We should have done this a lot earlier,” Sen. J. Kalani English said.

HONOLULU — A bill to create a system of medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii cleared a huge hurdle on Monday when House and Senate conference committee members agreed on a plan, reports Hawaii News Now.

A big internal shift in the Senate cleared the way for the House’s preference that the five licenses to be awarded be done so on a merit basis, rather than first-come, first-served.

The measure failed to advance out of the conference committee by Friday’s deadline, prompting lawmakers to ask for a waiver to keep the bill alive. The Senate President also took the unusual step of removing Senator Josh Green from the negotiating panel and making Senator Will Espero the new chair.

“What we did was allowable under our legislative rules. It is not unprecedented. It is part of our process,” Espero said.

Green had refused to accept the House’s version of the bill which called for dispensary licenses to be given out based on merit. He insisted on a first come, first served system instead.

Patients celebrated Monday after House and Senate negotiators finally approved the bill.

“What a roller coaster of emotions, this is the exact opposite. Now I’m ecstatic. I just can’t imagine. We went from Friday to this. What a high,” said medical marijuana patient Teri Heede.

House co-chair Rep. Della Au Belatti said the bill maintains local control through legal residency requirements for individuals and entities interested in a dispensary license.

The measure calls for a total of 8 licenses. Three would be for Oahu, two for Maui, two for the Big Island, and one for Kauai. Each license would allow for up to two retail locations.

Hawaii was among the first states to legalize medical marijuana nearly 15 years ago. But the state never got around to creating a licensed growing and distribution system. So the estimated 13,000 patients approved for the drug statewide have generally been left to buy it on the black market,or grow it on their own.

“We could only get the stuff through the black market so it’s been that way for the last 15 years,” said medical marijuana patient Keoni Ward.

The measure is expected to be easily approved in both houses and then signed by Governor David Ige, who has indicated his support.

The committee-approved bill, HB321-CD1, would allow applications for licenses to be available in Hawaii starting in January 11, 2016. The Department of Health would select the licensees in March and the first dispensary could open as early as July 15, 2016. A $5,000 non-refundable fee would be required to apply for a license. An approved dispensary would pay a fee of $75,000 for a license, with a $50,000 annual renewal fee.

The measure requires all dispensary licensees and employees to be subject to a criminal and background check. It restricts medical marijuana dispensaries within 750 feet of a playground, public housing complex or school. The bill also authorizes licensed dispensaries to be subject to annual unannounced inspections of its operations by the DOH.

Reciprocity with patients from other states would start on January 1, 2018.

In 2000, the Hawaii State Legislature passed the original medical marijuana law, enabling the use of the plant by individuals with specific qualifying conditions.

However, the law did not provide patients with a legal method of obtaining marijuana. This forced the state’s medical marijuana patients, who now number about 13,000, to grow their own marijuana or run afoul of state laws. Even the sale of seeds for marijuana cultivation remains illegal in Hawaii.

Last year, the legislature established a Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force at the University of Hawaii to develop recommendations aimed at getting dispensaries up and running.

“We have a medical marijuana system but you have to begin in the illegal market,” said Susan Chandler, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center, who ran the task force. “How do you get your first seed? You can’t buy it legally. That’s the strangest part.”

The other big change is that the Hawaii State Department of Health is taking over administration of the program from the Department of Public Safety, which has a law enforcement focus.

In order to use marijuana as medicine, a patient must be diagnosed by a physician licensed to practice in Hawaii as having one of several specific debilitating medical conditions or some other chronic or debilitating condition that produces wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe and persistent muscle pain.

Michelle Tippens, of Honolulu, talks about the need for medical marijuana dispensaries at the Hawaii Legislature, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. Tippens wore a necklace strung with more than a dozen prescription medicines that she says she was able to stop taking after she switched to medical marijuana. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz)

HONOLULU — Michelle Tippens was taking more than a dozen medications for years after a car accident left her with multiple spine fractures and traumatic brain injuries.

But when she switched to medical marijuana she was able to wean herself off all of the pills, she said.

Tippens is one of nearly 13,000 patients in Hawaii who have conditions that could be treated with medical marijuana. But because there are no dispensaries in Hawaii, they’re left to fend for themselves, buying on the black market or growing it themselves.

“In order to qualify for the card, you have to be really sick,” said Tippens, who wore a necklace of old pill bottles to the Legislature on Tuesday. “And a lot of people who are really sick are not capable of cultivating marijuana.”

Fourteen years after medical marijuana became legal in Hawaii, lawmakers are pushing plans to give patients legal access to the drug. A joint meeting of the House Committees on Health and Judiciary advanced a proposal Tuesday that would establish medical marijuana dispensaries. The bill, HB 321, now goes to the House Committee on Finance.

The amended proposal would allow a minimum of 26 dispensaries, which would have to be at least 700 feet from playgrounds, schools and public housing.

Opponents fear that establishing dispensaries could make it easier for young people to get their hands on the drug and pave the way for decriminalization.

A similar proposal in the Senate is slated for a decision in a joint committee hearing today.

HONOLULU — Lawmakers in Hawaii are beginning to introduce a series of bills that aim to make marijuana more freely available in the state.

A bill to decriminalize marijuana is currently being drafted, said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. That bill would reduce punishment for using marijuana to a civil violation instead of a felony, he said.

Under the proposal, getting caught with marijuana would be similar to getting a parking ticket, and like a parking ticket, violators could mail in their responses to the courts. The fine would not exceed $100, Espero said.

“Decriminalization might have a chance this year, especially when you look at what’s going on in other states,” Espero said.

But House Majority Leader Scott Saiki has said he believes decriminalization is unlikely to pass. “I don’t think there’s much more support for it,” Saiki said.

Espero plans to introduce at least two other bills on the topic Friday.

One bill, SB 190, would allow marijuana growers to serve three medical marijuana patients at a time, instead of the current one-person limit. That’s especially important for elderly patients who may not be able to cultivate a garden, he said. The bill also spells out how patients or caregivers can get seeds or plants.

“Right now the law is silent on how a person can receive their seedlings to grow marijuana,” Espero said.

Another bill would change the drug’s classification. Marijuana is currently in classification 1, meaning it’s considered as dangerous as heroin.

“This is an error or mistake that people have been trying to get the federal government to change, but it hasn’t,” Espero said.

In the House, a bill was introduced Thursday to prohibit discrimination against medical marijuana users in condominiums. That bill, HB 31, says that if house rules or bylaws discriminate against medical marijuana users, those rules are void, unless the complex prohibits tobacco smoking and the patient ingests medical marijuana by smoking.

Lawmakers have made it clear that increasing access to medical marijuana — likely through dispensaries — will be a priority.

HONOLULU — Fourteen years after Hawaii legalized medical marijuana, there is still no legal way for patients to obtain pot without growing it themselves.

The 2000 law also is silent on how the state’s 13,000 patients can get the seeds for plants they are allowed to grow.

Even as four states have legalized recreational use of marijuana through voter initiatives, Hawaii legislators remain focused on creating a statewide medical marijuana dispensary system, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

“I do expect that bills will be introduced on decriminalization and legalization, as always,” said Democratic state Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. “But Hawaii’s not ready for legalization. The public is not clamoring for it. My colleagues are not knocking on my door saying, ‘We have to have it. It is now on the radar and it is gaining momentum.’ People are still waiting to see how things are handled in Colorado and Washington and other states.”

He and others said the emphasis on marijuana-related bills this session will be on creating a system that would allow patients to legally acquire marijuana through dispensaries on each island.

The Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force was recently told that if such a bill were passed, the state health department likely would need two to three years to consider the issues involved in and create rules to administer a program.

Karl Malivuk, a 66-year-old medical marijuana patient from Moiliili who sits on the task force, said he’s discouraged, calling the law on the books useless.

“I have no say-so over what is available,” he said. “Compared to the ’60s and ’70s, it’s so heavily narcotic. So I have a choice of being nauseated or totally stoned.”

The number of medical marijuana patients is expected to grow next year when the health department takes over administering the program from the state Department of Public Safety, which has a law enforcement focus.

And there are a number of complicated issues that will have to be addressed in establishing dispensaries, said Susan Chandler, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center. She also runs the dispensary task force meetings.

“You have licensing issues. Who’s going to be able to grow it? What’s the fee structure? There are quality control issues and security issues,” she said. “It’s a very complicated piece of legislation. While other states have done it, we don’t have a quick administrative rules process and procedures.”

Until Hawaii creates a dispensary system, Chandler said, “We have a medical marijuana system but you have to begin in the illegal market. How do you get your first seed? You can’t buy it legally. That’s the strangest part.”

A task force set up by Hawaii’s legislature is exploring how medical marijuana dispensaries could be set up, and studying how the state stacks up with other medical cannabis states.

In 2000, the Hawaii State Legislature passed a law enabling the use of medical marijuana by qualified individuals.

However, the law did not provide patients with a legal method of obtaining marijuana. This forced the state’s medical marijuana patients, who now number about 13,000, to grow their own marijuana or run afoul of state laws. Even the sale of seeds for marijuana cultivation remains illegal in Hawaii.

This year the legislature established a Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force at the University of Hawaii to develop recommendations aimed at getting dispensaries up and running.